Thursday, May 01, 2014

Death


Much talk about death lately in the stuff I read and on the airwaves.

On the radio coming home last night, there was a most interesting chat about Death Cafes. I wouldn't mind hosting one. Seriously. So very many people are squeamish about the grim reaper. But out here on the Edge? It would be a further notation on my "she's nuts, isn't she?" file.

What carries most people through the idea of their own death is the thought of the wonderful afterlife awaiting them surrounded by those beloveds (what about the behateds?) gone before them, clearing a space on the sofa so to speak.

What would you do all day, I ask them.

Praise God, or some such form of an answer comes back at me.

Privately, I think: what an incredibly boring existence that would be.

I mean, I imagine meeting my mother in the afterlife. What on earth would we talk about? She'd know everything wouldn't she, having observed all and sundry, the bad and the good and the pitiful, in the 45 years since she left us.

"Mum, will I tell you about my play?"

"Oh my Pet I saw it all, it was great and your thought processes to get there were very interesting too."

Long Pause.

"You'd have liked your great-granddaughter, Mum."

"Oh, darling, I watch her all the time, look, come sit down by me and we'll watch her together."

Long Pause.

I mean seriously now, wouldn't you rather watch paint dry? Except I'm damn sure there's no paint in heaven.

And the praise God bit?

Wouldn't you think She'd have enough of that nonsense? You know hymns 'n psalms 'n stuff echoing unendingly 24/7 at Her from down here below already.

I mean I can see Her now. clutching Her eardrums, closing Her eyes, shouting at the billions of dead, now risen, at Her feet:

"For feck's sake, would you all get a bloody life?"

22 comments:

  1. Where life is, death is not. Where death is, life is not. So what is death to the living? At worst, it is returning to where I came from. At best, it is relief from life. What are either to me, for when death arrives, I will not be.

    Now those of you that believe in a afterlife have a problem.

    ReplyDelete
  2. However much one believes in the afterlife, life BEFORE death is at least as important! Haven't thought through the logistics of it I must admit, but I'm hoping there's an afterlife, not least to make sense of the life bit and everything we go through.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You have me giggling. If I were to get my toes through the so called pearly gates how would I fare? Jack would be busy with my two predecessors, so I would only be granted every third day!!!!! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fred:

    I view death as a total relief, and I do hope I'm exhausted when I get there and looking forward to the long nap. :)

    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  5. Laura:
    I agree with living life before death. But make sense? I think it is total chaos, and we humans the most chaotic in it.
    A really dreadful experiment and if She is around, She's turned Her back on us a long time ago. :D
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh, sort of like a Mormon situation there, GM, LOL.
    Poor Jack, thoroughly exhausted. :D

    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  7. God plays no role in my afterlife, but I suppose the essence of the people I loved who have died does. But I am very vague about how that works and really think of myself hanging around on earth and being witness to all that happens to it and its victims. I think I am not one for higher spheres.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've always been partial to the last verse cof "XSam Hall," which he conveniently sings after they hang him for murder:

    "Now in heaven I do dwell,
    I do dwell
    And the truth it is to tell,
    That it is a bloody cell,
    All the whores are down in hell!
    Damn their eyes, damn their eyes,
    The whores are down in hell, damn their eyes."

    ReplyDelete
  9. Irene:

    I'm just looking forward to the long sleep.

    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  10. Marc:

    I really am curious as to what happened to the johns and the pimps.

    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  11. The johns and pimps with Sam do dwell,
    Up in heaven,their own true hell.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I don't believe in either heaven or hell, though hell sounds a lot more exciting than heaven. Heaven seems to be a sort of glorified suburbia, with everyone having endless tea and cakes and saying nice things about each other.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Only vaguely on topic: A mortuary in our town used to advertise "calcination, no-flame cremation."

    ReplyDelete
  14. Nick:

    I don't think I'd care for the endless burning of hell, though, wouldn't it hurt?

    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hattie:

    Oh wouldn't one like to watch that!

    NOT!!

    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  16. I've always found the notion of dead folks up in heaven watching those of us still on earth utterly bizarre and creepy. Can they see everything? Is there no privacy in the bathroom or in bed? Ick.

    And there are plenty of folks I do NOT want to have to be around for eternity.

    ReplyDelete
  17. SAW:

    Can you imagine an eternal life full of all the people we didn't care about in this one?

    Of course I wouldn't be amongst the righteous, so why am I worried. The Rapture would completely bypass me.

    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  18. I'm a person of faith, believing that God exists - selfishly, because when I have a need or a fear, I want God to handle it; but also because I like expressing gratitude to someone for nature, family, friends, health, etc.

    As for death, at 56 years old, I have accepted the inevitable, but hope and pray that it will not happen to me for many years. For the most part, I enjoy life and I still have young children.

    Is heaven real? I don't know. My devout husband can't understand when I say that. Because, like most of your readers, I can't imagine the bliss of all. There would have to be some sort of transformation into a being who experiences non-stop joy, though that seems tiring.

    And hell... I reeeeally hope there's no hell! :)

    So if "zip, zap, gone" is how it's going to be, I'm okay with it. I'll let God decide.

    ReplyDelete
  19. When speculating about Death and the hereafter a word on the subject from one who should know.
    The living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun." "There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10. "The dead praise not the Lord." Psalms 115:17.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I would rather go to hell WWW. All my friends and those I loved from my family will be there and we will all form hell's best cricket team with our cheer leaders and have a ball.

    ReplyDelete
  21. You had me chortling at your last para.

    I'm a non-believer so heaven and hell don't feature in my speculations. I rather like the idea of my spirit/energy departing to join the Universal energy and if I had my way, I'd join the green in the rainbows. Nice thought.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are welcome. Anonymous comments will be deleted unread.

Email me at wisewebwomanatgmaildotcom if you're having trouble.